“Ideally it would be like a French dip,” says Donahue. “But the nice part [about the pocket] is it’s something that people can grab and eat and walk with.”

Devised by Empress/Mother cook Chad Novick (who also helms the cart), the grab-and-go pocket will be the main offering of the food cart, which will be open on weekdays beginning at 11 a.m. and will close whenever Novick runs out of his wares. The cart will be “somewhere on K Street,” according to Donahue, but will typically be in front of Mother or Empress.

The cart will be in the testing stages for a while with the prime rib pocket, which took months to perfect, says Donahue, but if all goes well, passersby may start to see a more extended menu of Novick’s hand-held pies.